On February 27, 2002 near Godhra Junction in India's western state of Gujarat, an angry mob reportedly provoked by the alleged attempted abduction and rape of a 16 year old Muslim girl spiraled horribly out of control resulting in a fire in one of the train's compartments that killed 59 passengers, of which most were Hindus said to have been returning from a religious pilgrimage. The event sparked widespread rioting between the Muslim and Hindu communities that lasted for three days virtually sanctioned by the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a member of the Bharitya Jananta Party (BJP), a militant Hindu Nationalist Party; in many parts of the state resulting in the deaths of 2,000 Muslims and 250 Hindus.

Approximately 250,000 Muslims were estimated to have been displaced following the riots after hundreds of their homes were burnt to the ground. Almost eight years after the riots there remain some 4,000 families living in displacement colonies throughout the state. Unable to return to where they once lived before the riots, the victims now remain confined to ghettos where they live in an atmosphere engulfed by fear and insecurity believing that they have no voice while living in houses they can not call their own, struggling to survive in areas without basic amenities of proper sanitation, schools, hospitals or access to clean water because of the fact that they are Muslim.

In Narolvatwa, an industrial area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the water is contaminated by chemicals flowing through broken underground pipes by nearby factories. Residents fearing for the health and welfare of their families state that they have complained over the past several years but nothing has been done.

My piece is to bring awareness to this issue because everyone has a right to expect to live a life free of contaminants that if not checked could lead to death.

Contaminated soil directly affects human health through direct contact with soil or via inhalation of soil contaminants which have vaporized. At sufficient dosages a large number of soil contaminants can cause death by exposure via direct contact, inhalation or ingestion of contaminants in groundwater contaminated through soil.

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